Video platform Wochit helps media companies meet advertiser needs

By L. Carol Christopher

Wochit helps news media organisations produce quality, ready-to-publish video in 10 to 15 minutes for Web, social media, and mobile. The company solves two challenges that surround online video by:

Reducing the cost of production for online publishers.

Streamlining the workflow for individual journalists or producers — even those with no previous experience, leading them to be able to meet high advertiser demand for video.

A third-party video creator is an option to consider for media companies that need help with their video strategy.

Users can log in to the cloud-based, video-creation platform, then let its software analyse text from a URL, RSS feed, or raw copy for an article for keywords and elements (such as people, places, events, and relationships).

A media organisation can respond to any breaking or trending topic, for example, and economically produce scaled, branded, original content. Wochit is also useful for creative storytelling.

To do this, Wochit searches archives from Reuters, Agence France-Press, Getty, Storyful, Blooomberg, and the Associated Press for content tagged with matching keywords to find licensed video and images that can be used in a media company’s final product in unlimited quantities.

It can also mix a media organisation’s visual assets into the story. Media companies can upload as many images and videos as they wish in their gallery, as long as they own them (any low- or high-res previewable file under 1 GB).

The product presents the most recent and relevant content first, delivered at the speed that the agencies can upload it. Users can also choose to use b-roll stock footage or abstract content for subjects that require it. Media companies can also choose among infographics for the video: a map that zooms in to a location, perhaps, or an animated graph of company stock figures for a business story.

Then software returns a voice-over script that a human can edit into a usable script for a video via Chrome-based browser window for voice-over recording and editing.

There are drag-and-drop controls to fit the media to the script’s timeline for the final post-edit process and a built-in recorder that allows a recorded voiceover. Or the process can be fully automated, with Wochit syncing footage to keywords in the script, then recording it with voice-over talent.

Here’s a recent example from a news story in the United States:

Garrett Goodman, director, business development/Europe, says it is the unique combination of natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and agency-licensed footage that make Wochit different from similar products. In addition, it has a simple and intuitive production platform and “a content hub” that provides access to “basically all the licensed content in the world for news.”

Wochit also has evolved from the feedback and insights shared by the publishers who use it to create original video for digital distribution. That group includes Hearst Magazines, Gannett, AOL, Yahoo!, Axel Springer, Burda, and Gruppo Espresso among others.

They have suggested the addition of particular content sources, as well as the design and flow of the user experience, and improvements to the video production process. For example, following requests from some of its users, Wochit enabled the use of the platform in multiple languages, and now its partners can produce original video content in any spoken language.

Wochit’s partners also produce video for verticals, with topics including general news, men’s interests, women’s interests, technology, lifestyle, entertainment, do-it-yourself, sports, and finance. This is possible due to Wochit’s “innovative platform and flexible approach,” Goodman says.

The goal is to allow any storyteller to tell a story in video both quickly and easily, Goodman says.

There are two different versions:

A free, “self-serve model” allows independent creators to make professional-looking videos. They have access to a “knowledge base” and e-mail access to the Wochit support team. Branding for free accounts will be offered in the future.

Wochit’s VIP Package is available for business users, offering a dedicated “customer success manager” that “onboards” your team onto the Wochit platform to turn it into power users. These users can run advertising with the video, whether that means selling pre-roll, driving traffic back to their site from social media, or creating YouTube channels. Wochit has established partnerships with syndication platforms like AOL.On, Yahoo!, NDN, and others.

About L. Carol Christopher

L. Carol Christopher is an editor at INMA, based in Pleasant Hill, California, USA. She can be reached at christopherlcarol@gmail.com.